body-container-line-1

Zebilla Constituency NDC: Hon Cletus Avoka Must Let My People Go!

Feature Article Cletus Avoka
NOV 4, 2018 LISTEN
Cletus Avoka

Verily verily, I say unto you, the youth, the elderly, opinion leaders and To Whom It May Concern in and from the land of my birth, that, this is not the best of times for those of us in the largest opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC. We are in the days of king Pharaoh of old Egypt when the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me”.

The first Bible’s mention of Pharaoh’s resistance was a prediction by God Himself, when He spoke with Moses in the wilderness and said onto him: “I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him” ( Exodus 3:19 ). Soon after that prediction, the Lord said to Moses, “I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go” ( Exodus 4:21 ).

From the burning bush, God spoke of two reasons for Pharaoh’s resistance to Moses. He attributed these to the king’s own stubbornness and a supernatural hardening of the king’s heart after Pharaoh exercised his own defiance towards God. In those ancient days, King Pharaoh was considered a god, and his every word was law. There was no one who could stand against him. But at the end of the story as told in the Holy Bible, King Pharaoh had to submit to the supremacy of God and let the people off his claws to go. This is what we are experiencing as party members in the Zebilla constituency. Our party is locked up! And the keys are safe guarded by our conqueror.

Yes! I have spoken before and I will speak again and again until we are set free from the reprehensible captivity we have found ourselves. Need I strike a chord to you that the great NDC in Zebilla Constituency has been conquered by one man since the beginning of time of democratic politics and turned into a monarchy? Need I tell you once more that there is no NDC in Zebilla Constituency without the Emperor of that old monarchy? No! I must not!

Whatever it may look like, the shameful truth is that there no NDC in Zebilla Constituency but rather there’s Cletus Apul Avoka party (CAAP). And I say unto you again that whoever tells you that there is an unchained NDC as a political party in this constituency is only a pretender. The godfather of Zebilla Constituency NDC yesterday and today is Hon Lawyer Cletus Avoka. Simple! And what is mind-wrecking is that he is not ready to leave now as he was not ready to leave in 2012 and 2016. After over twenty (20) years of leading the party in the constituency, the 67-year old politician is still like that stubborn baby with the nipple of its mother’s breast stuck to its mouth even in sleep. Haha!

Any attempt by the mother to set the breast free from the grips of the stubborn baby’s weak teeth, will be met with a loud cry of resistance. It has no strength in sucking the breast in sleep yet it is not ready to let the breast go, so that the suffering mother can also relax. It takes only a determined mother to set her breast free from the stubborn baby’s mouth, ignore its attention seeking cry and put that stubborn baby back to sleep. Seen? It’s that simple!

You can also relate my Honourable former Member of Parliament and now the Chairman of the legal committee for the NDC national conferences to the funny story of the spider and the housefly that is often told by elders in my village. That, when the spider’s web catches a housefly, it will soberly plead with the spider to eat it, but the spider will reply’ ‘how can I eat a housefly’? And when it begs to be to be released, the spider will reply again ‘how can I release meat’?

This, according to the story, will continue until either the poor housefly gathers more strength and break loose from the spider’s trap or dies and remain in the web even if the spider moves to another location. This is the plight of the NDC in the Zebilla Constituency in the web of Hon Avoka. He knows that he cannot win political power for the party because the people are fed up with him. Yet, he is not ready to leave while the applause is loudest. Haba!

It is common knowledge that at the inception of democracy in 1992, the people of Zebilla saw their future intertwined with noble ideals of the NDC judging from the epic battles the party’s founder fought to bring about democracy. Quite unsuspecting that he will later turned to be a monarch, the party in the constituency presented one of the few Lawyers then in fact in the whole of Bawku , Hon Avoka, as their Parliamentary Candidate for the parliamentary election, an election that gave the party a wide and popular acceptance.

Hon Avoka continued winning the favours of the people of the constituency of the 1992, 1996, 2000 parliamentary elections with effortlessness. However, he mistook the people’s love for the party as an everlasting love for him. With this, he squandered that goodwill and instead formed a cabal that has culminated into what is known as ‘Nobody But Avoka’ movement, NBA, in the constituency. He refused to pick and groom the numerous youngmen and women who were at his service to take over from him with time to come. His mindset had and has been simple; to rule the people till death do them apart. A traditional throne of a kind. Seen?

He then formed his own crowd around himself and technically vanquished any other faction laying claims to the party’s leadership. Though, such people still call themselves original party members but they do that in name not in reality. Truly, they are the foundation members of the party but with the movement of Hon Avoka, christened ‘Nobody But Avoka’, NBA, since 1992, the so-called foundation members had been uprooted and their structures demolished.

Though, they have fought relentlessly against all odds of the Hon Avoka’s NBA to also share in the leadership of what they thought belong to them. But the notorious NBA created by the former MP and the godfather of the party in the constituency has made real politics not to work in their favour. The NBA and its crowd say they cannot entrust the destiny of the party to anybody because all are seen as incapable of delivering Zebilla constituency to the party during parliamentary elections. It is only their self-imposed godfather of the constituency who can ensure us victory. Even those who aided the NBA and its crowd to win, the usual landslide victories over the years are considered political babies and must not come near the leadership of the party.

His own people who could no longer stand the archaic monarch politics, simply walked out of the Hon Avoka’s NBA and its crowd. This, over the years, has made the NBA, its founder and crowd politically irrelevance. The NBA and its crowd is getting slimmer and the traffic to Cletus Apul Avoka party, CAAP, is getting more and more emptier. An indication that, this is the time for the youth to take over. That, this is the time for a fresh leadership to take over and man the affairs of the party. That it is the liberation time and he must let my people go!

As I and my likes, embark on this deadly mission of challenging a monarch that has never been touched, I continue to ask out of curiosity; can we win? We are fighting against one man dictatorship. Can we win? We are fighting against monarch politics. Can we win? We are fighting against internal election manipulations. Can we win? We are fighting against a leadership that celebrates poverty. Can we win? We are fighting divide and rule as a means of maintaining an underserved political edge in Zebilla constituency NDC politics. Can we win? We say we must reject political deceit and selfishness in the politics of our great party in our homeland. Can we win? I say in the voice of Mr Barack Hussein Obama, former president of the United States of America that ‘Yes, we can’!

Yes, we can if all those matter in the politics of NDC in the Zebilla constituency will rise in one voice against the Hon Avoka’s NBA and its crowd which I described as moribund, retrogressive, and subversive to our cause. Yes we can, if we can say loudly and clear that enough is enough to the Cletus Apul Avoka party, CAAP. Yes we can, if we stand in unity and in one strong and fearless voice. Yes, we can!

Zebilla constituency NDC politics has come to a point where the only way forward is to put a permanent end to the shameful monarchy that has been the sad requiem for many years now and it will be obvious as time goes on. I foresee the difficulties that will not be surmountable except we continue the fight with our strength and intellect. The prognosis concerning any venture that one is mandated to undertake, is not usually given by God. What He does is to give a command and expect faith to be exercised in relation to that command, albeit there is no palpable feasibility for the actualization of that mandate. We must have that faith and we shall conquer! Yes, we can!

There is a plethora of instances in the Bible when people were called by God to carry out specific responsibilities, and it can be unequivocally stated that victory was dependent on their level of obedience. I know the battle I am waking up from its sleep is not for the weak-hearted, neither the cowards nor the bootlickers. The threats will come as they had come. The insults will be bombarded from the ignoramus. The worshippers of the Monarchy will let hell break loose upon me and in light of this; I see myself as a soldier of the voiceless, with the mandate to re-establish the great Akatamasonia family as a true political party and not the property of the few. I am neither asking to be a part of the leadership of the NDC in the constituency nor am I asking to be the candidate in any election. Let those who are worried about my ambition get that straight.

I am asking that, like God spoke to King Pharaoh of old Monarch Egypt through Moses “to let His people go”, that the Hon Avoka’s NBA and its weakened crowd should let the NDC in Zebilla constituency go. That we need to restructure the party in the constituency which shall deal with fundamental issues, that beset us as a party in order to prevent another catastrophe come 2020 general elections. And that we cannot do these, with the party suffocating in his pocket. He should honourably let the party go!

However, whether he and his crop of politicians will submit to this or not, I will definitely pursue it because it is not dependent on them. It’s a sacrifice for my people and my party, which is why I have maintained the same stance since 2015 till today. There is a lot of scepticism in the world itself, even in the church. Remember, Moses went before Pharaoh several times before he yielded and it wasn’t because God didn’t send him from the outset. This has never been an issue for me because delay is not denial. I’m a man on a mission and cannot be intimidated by those useless threats. The enormity of the task itself is apparent for all to see; but with God, all things are possible. He must throw in the towel and call it a day! This is not a difficult to request to honourably grant.

The few who are opposed to my position should know that such was expected. Even the Lord Jesus, while He was here had strong opposition but he conquered the world even in death. I’m also aware that there are true patriots in and out of the constituency who share in my position and the time will come, when there would be a convergence. The high level of resentment present amongst the party rank and file in the constituency because of the few people who think the party is their personal property is unprecedented.

We must therefore, together rise up and find a solution while our people are still willing to stay: a practical pragmatism which is necessary to engender the state of the party where the grassroots are willing to continue to making this party great, strong and vibrant once again.

The Hon Avoka’s NBA and its weakened crowd must give way, unless gravitational law is now invalidated. As it is for those on political heights, a political career that blossomed at forty must start to nosedive at sixties. He should know that this time around, money cannot sustain what must give way to effluxion of time. A generation goes, another comes. I say in the commanding voice of God as he spoke to King Pharaoh through messenger Moses to “let My people go, that they may serve Me”, that Hon Cletus Avoka should know what time it is and let the NDC go.

I shall be back
The writer is a Senior Journalist, Managing Editor of The National Tribute newspaper, a columnist with many online portals and an activist of the National Democratic Congress, NDC. Email; thenationaltribute@gmail, 0249726262.

body-container-line